The group's map showed Penn Avenue as the expected march route, but Perrine reported that protesters left the park via 38th Street and seemed to
be headed downtown via Liberty Avenue instead.

I don't know what the police have planned. Certainly, I do know law enforcement is capable of causing great violence, so maybe you need to ask the
law enforcement," protester Renee Sanderfer said. "I have no idea of any (plans to cause disruptions). I haven't heard a single thing."

Cipriani said security forces are already taking steps to make sure the protest doesn't get too close to the convention center, where world leaders
will convene to discuss the global economic crisis over the next two days.

Cement barriers have been set up along Penn in the Strip, starting at the 16th Street Bridge intersection.

Further up Penn, there are police officers and military members stationed along the Veterans Bridge across from the convention center.

Inside the Golden Triangle downtown, there are federal, state and local police officers on foot, bike and horseback, patrolling a security perimeter
that has been established around the convention center by the U.S. Secret Service.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl swore in thousands of visiting law enforcement on Wednesday night at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland.

Police deployed tear gas on protesters as the largest demonstration against the Group of 20 economic summit brought more than 500 protesters into
the street in Pittsburgh.

The group scattered in all directions as officers in riot gear fired tear gas into the crowd in the area between Arsenal Park -- at 40th Street and
Penn Avenue -- and 35th Street. A group dressed in black face masks marched outbound on Liberty, back toward Lawrenceville and Bloomfield and a police
line stopped them from moving toward Downtown.

Officers warned the crowd in several languages to disperse or face arrest.

Protesters first rallied in Arsenal Park, then spread to streets around the park at 40th Street and Penn Avenue, some lying down in the street and
others chanting: "Bankers, bankers, watch your back, we don't protest, we attack!"

E.J. Thompson, 39, of Monterrey Bay, Calif., arrived in Pittsburgh on Sunday to protest what he called destruction of the environment by world
leaders. He came to Arsenal Park prepared for violence. He duct-taped phone books to his body, and wore shin guards and baggie yellow protective
pants, similar to a firefighter's turnout gear.

"I just want my message out there," he said. "The difference between me and the people who are supposed to be keeping order is that I don't
deliver my message using tear gas and rubber bullets."

Earlier, a group of several hundred people calling themselves Students for a Democratic Society marched from Oakland through Bloomfield toward Arsenal
Park .

Young protesters, many wearing masks or bandanas covering their faces, shouted and carried signs calling for the end of war, greater access to
education, and the demise of capitalism on their march from Schenley Plaza to Arsenal Park.

Many of the protesters identified themselves as residents of Washington, D.C. and Rochester, NY.

"We're here to let leaders of the world know that education is a right and that the current way of doing things is not working," said Deborah
Hollingsworth, 30, of West Jefferson, NC.

Police followed the crowd in marked and unmarked police units and a helicopter hovered overhead. The crowd was boisterous but not unruly, keeping to
the sidewalk and obeying traffic lights as it marched.

City Councilman Patrick Dowd was among people waiting along the initial march route from Oakland, standing at Penn Avenue in Bloomfield with his three
children, ages 7, 10 and 12. Observing the protesters was a "learning experience" for them, he said.

I wonder what the youngsters are learning in this last paragraph? How Americans no longer have the right to protest?

Police in riot gear blocked the marchers from leaving the park on the 40th Street side, but the group was allowed to exit on 39th Street and head
to Liberty Avenue, where they turned toward Downtown around 3 p.m.

But around 34th Street, a recording in both English and Spanish blared out that it was an unlawful assembly and ordered marchers to disperse. The
announcement was accompanied by a high-pitched noise.

Most of the marchers then turned down an alley near the Church Brew Works restaurant and headed toward Penn Avenue. From there, police blocked some of
them on Denny Street, where some Dumpsters were overturned, while other marchers headed to Mintwood Street. Eventually they got to 37th Street and
headed toward Butler Street.

At that intersection, police again confronted them and ordered them to disperse, then fired tear gas, forcing the marchers to retreat.

Some of them regrouped at Penn Avenue and Main Street and began chanting "Round 2" before heading to Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield, where they
chanted "Whose street? Our street." That group, Detroit-based Bail Out the People, then walked in a traffic lane of Liberty Avenue through most of
the Bloomfield business district before 10 to 15 police cars arrived, with K-9s, and dispersed them. They headed to Friendship Park in Bloomfield.

Others reached 32nd and Penn, where traffic was brought to a halt when police again confronted the marchers and ordered them to stop. As of 4 p.m.,
that group obeyed orders to move to a sidewalk but refused orders to disperse.

Still another group was reported going into the PNC Bank in the 2000 block of Penn.

Originally posted by sanchoearlyjones
This absolutely makes me sick. I cannot believe this is occurring, and it blows me even further away to see the good little minions playing
along.........................Hey, they have power too!

Well friend Sancho it looks like this is not just a hardy band of 400-500 protesters but a determined one that the police have been harassing
throughout the day, trying to pen them in at times, and trying to get them to disperse at other times just to see them keep regrouping.

They seem determined, it should prove deciding round about the time the sun goes down, the Police will want to break them up before the night wears
on.

8' high fencing, multiple check points, bomb dogs, national guard,
armed gun teams, jersey barriers, police patrols, and they do have a sound cannon, and they are telling people to leave and if you dont leave you will
be subject to force, its on local tv now, JUST WOW!

Originally posted by HappilyEverAfter
8' high fencing, multiple check points, bomb dogs, national guard,
armed gun teams, jersey barriers, police patrols, and they do have a sound cannon, and they are telling people to leave and if you dont leave you will
be subject to force, its on local tv now, JUST WOW!

Well, so far the US really does look to be as Apathetic and entirely uncaring as I feared it would be. 500 compared to 35,000 in London? Keep on
fighting the good fight for television and KFC, you wonderful people, keep on fighting.

Sarcasm because I was hoping this would be the year that they finally overran the thing and shot them in the street. 100k armed would do the trick,
and even if they didn't succeed the amount dead would rally enough to the cause that it would have the same effect.

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